"If you like NBA awards, then today is your Christmas. We have another big bit of hardware-themed news.

Sactown Royalty’s Tom Ziller has learned that Tyreke Evans will receive the Rookie of the Year later this week, likely on either Thursday or Friday.

This was one of the few awards this season to boast a legitimate race, but Evans deserves the trophy. He became only the fourth rookie in history to average 20 ppg, 5 apg, and 5 rpg for an entire season, joining the select group of Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James(notes). He stood out in this class—and among rookies in general—for his impressive strength, standing as perhaps the strongest first-year guard to enter the league in the last decade.

Stephen Curry(notes) and Brandon Jennings(notes) were also popular choices for the award, but they couldn’t best Evans. Curry put up some extremely impressive stats for the Warriors, especially late in the season, but Golden State’s strong PR push (including personally calling voters to make the case) didn’t succeed. And while Jennings had his 55-point game in November and was the only one of the trio to make the playoffs, his poor shooting doomed his campaign.

It’s also worth noting that neither player has the presence of Evans, who firmly established himself as a star this season. The Kings now have someone who they can clearly get behind as a franchise player, the type of guy they’ve missed since Chris Webber(notes) (no offense to Kevin Martin(notes)).

This turned out to be a solid rookie class, but one player stood above the rest throughout the entire season. No one could match Evans’ production, and this award is richly deserved."
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not surprised by this at all. all 3 (evans, curry, jennings) had great years. i was pulling for jennings for the mere fact the bucks made the playoffs and are putting up a good fight against the hawks.

I remember about 10 months ago listening to so many people talking all kinds of junk about how weak this draft was. I wasn't alone in defending it, but was certainly in the minority. I argued at the time that while the 09 draft might be a little thin on star power, it was loaded with guys that were likely to have decent careers as solid NBA contributors, especially at the hard to fill PG spot. Obviously, one season doesn't a career make, but those who were comparing it to the worst drafts of all time have to be rethinking that now.

As a Kings fan I am thrilled by this award & look forward to see how this kid develops; especially with another quality piece likely heading our way in this year's draft. In less than a year, the Kings went from unwatchable to a young, up and coming team that worked hard and proved they could compete with anybody on any given night. Kudos and congrats to the Kings management & their young star.

I remember it being called weak leading up to the draft, mainly because the freshman class wasn't as spectacular as the prior two years, but as time wen on and players were analyzed further, people said it was a point guard rich draft, a draft where value could be found late, but no real superstar prospects barring PG's and Blake Griffin.

While Evans will, and should win the award, he has more to work on than Curry. Curry just needs to continue to learn how to use the skill he already has to be more effective. Evans has to work on seriously extending his range to get into elite status. With his jumpshot the way it is now, he's a cross between Larry Hughes and Andre Iguodala, which is far from horrible, but with a serious 3 pointer, the sky is the limit for him. Jennings needs to grow into his body and finish better, and gain more consistancy on is jumper. He already has real deep range, he just need to work on repeating his delivery.